BOC rewards environmental effort

Trade News

Guildford, U.K., 1 March 2010 - A secondary school’s plans to build a wildlife pond and wildflower garden have won it a GBP 2,000 prize from industrial gases company BOC. The pond and garden will help pupils learn about local biodiversity and the environment.

Sacred Heart School in Redcar, Cleveland, won this year’s BOC-NEPIC Environment Award for secondary schools. NEPIC, the North East Process Industry Cluster, represents over 500 businesses in the Teesside area. Joanne Hall, from the school’s science staff, received the prize from BOC’s MD Mike Huggon at the NEPIC annual dinner.

BOC, a member of The Linde Group, sponsors three annual environmental awards for schools and businesses in the North East. A GBP 2,000 prize also went to Nunthorpe Primary School near Middlesbrough, where a group of Year 6 pupils are creating an outdoor learning environment which will allow some lessons to take place outside – weather permitting! “The judges were really impressed by models and drawings created by the children which supported the application,” notes Dr Dave Lockyer, BOC Tonnage Account Manager. “Through this award, we are helping them to make their dream a reality.”

The third BOC-NEPIC award this year went to an industrial project which protects the natural world from negative impacts of industrial activity. This year’s winners were Huntsman Pigments, of Greatham near Hartlepool, for a scheme that involves waste heat recovery from a thermal oxidation process which is part of the production process for pigments. It is delivering energy savings of 80,000MWh – equivalent to the heat required by around 4,000 homes. The prize money cannot be kept by the winners though – it has to be used to develop an environmental project in a local school. Huntsman chose Greatham Church of England Primary School to receive the GBP 2,000 prize.

BOC has been visiting the winners to see how the projects are progressing. As Dr Dave Lockyer says: “BOC aims to inspire a new generation of environmentally-aware children and empower them to achieve even greater things as they grow older.”

About BOC

BOC is a member of The Linde Group. An industrial, medical and special gases provider, the company supplies compressed and bulk gases, chemicals and equipment. For more than a century the company's gases and expertise have contributed to advances in many areas of everyday life, and industries including steelmaking, refining, chemical processing, environmental protection, wastewater treatment, welding and cutting, food processing and distribution, glass production, electronics and health care. For more information visit http://www.BOConline.co.uk

About The Linde Group

The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with almost 50,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2008 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.7 billion. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards sustainable earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services. Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development. For more information, see The Linde Group online at http://www.linde.com